Nottinghamshire Muslim family suffers further harassment

Offensive graffiti attacking Allah and Islam has been painted outside a Muslim family’s home weeks after a cross wrapped in ham was left by their door.

The 31-year-old mother and two sons, eight and 10, say they have suffered five or six racist incidents since they moved to Bingham, Notts, in October.

The graffiti was painted on their path on Saturday morning.

A 13-year-old Bingham boy was arrested in connection with the ham-covered cross on Friday and bailed.

The family, who do not want to be identified, moved to the Nottinghamshire market town after the mother separated from her husband.

The husband said he had now had to move in with his family to protect them.

“They are in fear of their lives,” he said. “My kids are scared and crying. Two days after the first incident I saw the eldest on the laptop looking at a map, looking for escape routes in case anything goes wrong.”

“Clearly they are targeting my wife. I’ve got to assume it’s because of the way she dresses in traditional Asian clothes, with a traditional headdress.”

Why should she? Why should anyone? Simply because some bigots don’t like people who are different? It’s part of her heritage and she has every right to choose to wear it. When you live in a free country, that includes freedom to dress however you want. It wouldn’t be any different if she chose to wear a business suit or jeans and a leather jacket. Considering some of the western fashions I’ve seen out there, traditional Asian clothing isn’t that unusual by any stretch of the imagination.

Also… she’s not ‘dressing like an Arab.’ He said Asian clothing, which makes me assume she’s wearing a kurta or salwar kameez with a dupatta. That’s traditional dress for women on the Indian subcontinent, whether Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or even Christian. I fail to see why we should be forced to give up our traditional clothing simply because we live outside of Asia. Does that also mean that western clothing shouldn’t be sold in Egypt, India, Turkey, Yemen, Pakistan and the like? I’ve never been one to conform, least of all when it comes to alleviating the fears of a bunch of ignorant bigots, so I’m more than happy to stand up for her.

You do realize the implicit irony here too, right? Islamophobes are always going on about how women are ‘forced’ to wear veil or even hijab, but the minute someone living in the west makes a conscious choice to wear something like a kurta, the Islamophobes throw a hissy fit and scream about ‘creeping shariah’ and how people are resisting assimilation (as if assimilation is something to be desired).

mindy1

Why should they have to hide who they are? Religious freedom for all

Khan120

“I’ve got to assume it’s because of the way she dresses in traditional Asian clothes, with a traditional headdress.” I don’t endorse the bigotry this family has had to suffer but if she tried dressing like an English local rather than an Arab she will not suffer this problem, when in Rome do as the Romans.